When a director asks for animals in a production, it’s up to the backstage team to source them; in the case of Carmen it’s the responsibility of Jack Stookes, who is stage managing the opera’s revival in October.

‘We use a company called Animal Ambassadors, managed by an animal agent, Kay Weston. She has been arranging the contracts with The Royal Opera for years and always supplies us with fantastic animals that are all stageworthy, trained using a reward system. When a show is new we liaise with her and the director over breeds and colours; when it’s a revival we make sure what we get is as consistent as possible with what we had before.’ Jack and his team also have to deal with the red tape: health and safety inspections, council licences and registering the chickens with DEFRA.

Besides the birds, Carmen features a black horse, Louis, and a donkey, Pollyanne, which are both regulars to this production. The animals are brought to Covent Garden at least an hour before curtain-up – Westminster Council has provided a space for a horsebox outside the theatre — then taken backstage by their handlers to acclimatize in their own holding areas.

‘Louis has been doing shows for years,’ says Jack. ‘He’s gentle and unfazed by anything, whether an orchestra, singing or gunshots.’ The singer playing Escamillo makes his big entrance on horseback, and to prepare he spends a day at the stables. ‘It’s vital the singers and horse are introduced,’ explains Kay. ‘It’s actually written into the insurance contract. The singer gets familiar with the tack and the horse and gets used to riding and singing at the same time. People are often more nervous than the animals.’

Handlers, who are in costume to blend in with the cast, also accompany animals on and off stage at all times. The chickens are brought on with handlers — two birds in a basket and two held by a handler, usually Kay in costume. In earlier productions they would let the chickens peck around on the stage but they tended to wander off into the wings. ‘Last time The Royal Opera asked for white chickens, to stand out on stage,’ says Kay. ‘This time we are providing brown ones. The white ones were a little too feisty. I only have the chickens for a few months so perhaps they’d not been handled enough as chicks. We don’t train them as such but we make sure they are comfortable with being held.’

‘The chickens seem very happy,’ adds Jack, ‘so much so that they lay – quite often we have a couple of fresh eggs on the props table after performances.’

The team has to be aware of potential problems, however, as Jack explains: ‘Last time we did Carmen there was a beam of light that cut across the stage in a performance, which we didn’t have time to fix before the horse went on. When Louis got to that point he stopped, thinking it was a gap. It’s important to be aware of things that the animal might interpret as unsafe, and the handlers are vital as they know the animal and can tell us.’

There’s also the matter of safety on stage. ‘Louis is fitted with rubber shoes to stop him from slipping,’ says Kay, ‘but when we provided another horse for Falstaff, his hooves were too big for the shoes so they treated the stage with Slip No More.’

And what about the delicate subject of toilet training? It’s easily done with dogs, but horses and donkeys are surely another matter.

‘It’s usually not an issue during a performance,’ laughs Kay. ‘They have a person sitting on their back and are standing on a hard surface, which isn’t conducive. If it does happen it’s during an early rehearsal where the animal is unfamiliar with the surroundings. Handlers always have a basket on stage to catch anything, or we’d just bring on some mops — I’m sure the audience would love it! Let’s say you just have to go with the flow.’

This article was originally published in the Royal Opera House Magazine, received quarterly by the Friends of Covent Garden.

Opera singers are asked to impersonate animals more often than you might imagine – think of the feisty heroine of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, the dragon and Woodbird in Wagner’s Siegfried or the array of creatures in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges. But real-life animals sometimes get their chance to star too.

Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen, which opens on 16 December, offers an animal acting bonanza, including parts for a clutch of chickens and the patient donkey Pollyanne (who also starred with Plácido Domingo in Pagliacci, where she tried a little karaoke!). But the best dramatic role goes to Louis, Escamillo's majestic black horse in Act II. Louis created the role in 2006 and has appeared in each revival; with the help of a few polo mints he even seems to enjoy the singing.

There's plenty of horsing around in both ballet and opera at the Royal Opera House, from the cob horses in Trevor Nunn's production of Kát’a Kabanová to the white Shetland pony Peregrine and his dainty cart inLa Fille mal gardée. In 2012 a 15-year-old Irish draft horse named Rupert made national news in Robert Carsen's new production of Falstaff. Rupert had instant star quality, offering silent sympathy to Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff) while munching on hay in Act III scene 1, and letting Maestri ride him round the stage in Act III scene 2. Maestri, a novice rider, described their relationship as ‘love at first sight’.

Dogs are also notorious for their love of performing, and several Royal Opera productions have included parts for pooches. The Visconti production of Don Carlo equipped Philip II with two wolfhounds (though they had to be retired after one joined in the singing). Count Almaviva in David McVicar’s production of Le nozze di Figaro shows his animal-loving side when he leads on a springer spaniel in Act II. So does Musetta in John Copley’s beloved production of La bohème; she makes her striking first entrance with Puffin, a fluffy white German spitz endowed with saint-like patience. Alfie, the village dog in L’elisir d’amore has an even more challenging role, with two massive sprints across the stage in Act I. This young Jack Russell terrier stole the show in 2012, and even elbowed his way onto the website.

Cats are a little less stage-savvy than dogs, and we sometimes have to rely on model moggies – like the sleeping cat in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Il turco in Italia. However, the real black cat Girlie bravely endured a full five minutes as the witch Ježibaba’s cat in Act III of Jossie Wieler and Sergio Morabito's production of Rusalka, curled up on a sofa and seemingly impervious to the noise of several opera singers and a ninety-piece orchestra going at full pelt (as it were).

Birds have also had the odd walk-on part. Sadly, the eagle scheduled to appear in Graham Vick's production of Mitridate, re di Ponto got bored in rehearsals and so his contract had to be terminated, but in David McVicar's Die Zauberflöte Sarastro's majesty is enhanced by a handsome and very well-behaved falcon carried on by an attendant priest.

‘Never work with children or animals’, the saying goes. But our experiences at the Royal Opera House contradict it. Our animals perform before more than 2,000 people, cope with often very loud music and behave impeccably. They are indisputably stars.